In general, an attraction refers to a mechanism that is a ride provided in an amusement park, for example, and gives a user pleasure by providing the user with a variety of combinations of movements including, for example, rotation, tilting, constant-speed movement, acceleration, horizontal movement, and vertical movement while the user is positioned on the ride. In recent years, an attraction (hereinafter, referred to as “virtual reality attraction”) has been developed, which enables a user to experience immersive virtual reality (VR) by mechanically driving a mechanism on which the user is positioned and, at the same time, providing the user with an image accompanying a predetermined scenario. Further, a technology related to such a virtual reality attraction has also recently been expanding to various fields, such as a simulator, a fitness device, and a game device, in addition to a ride, according to the development of a head mounted display (HMD), three-dimensional image technologies, and a 360-degree VR image, for example.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates the configuration of a conventional virtual reality attraction 100. As illustrated, the virtual reality attraction 100 includes a machine component 130, on which a user is positioned, and an image component 150 on which an image is displayed to the user, and further includes an attraction control unit 110 for controlling the aforementioned components. The control unit 110 may receive control content input thereto or read the control content from a storage, and may control the machine component 130 and the image component 150 based on the control content.
In this example, the control unit 110 may control movement of the machine component 130 on which the user is positioned by driving, for example, one or more motors based on machine driving data included in the control content. For example, the machine driving data includes data necessary for movement of the machine component 130 in three dimensions, such as translation in a predetermined direction, rotation in a predetermined direction, maintenance of a predetermined posture, or a change in posture. Through control based on such machine driving data, the machine component 130 may be controlled to perform movement, such as maintenance or change of a predetermined posture, movement in the vertical direction (in the Z-axis), movement in the transverse direction (in the Y-axis), movement in the longitudinal direction (in the X axis), roll (rotation about the X-axis), pitch rotation (about the Y axis), or yaw rotation (about the Z axis), or combinations thereof.
In addition, the control unit 110 may cause a predetermined image to be displayed on the image component 150, such as a screen in front of the user or an HMD worn by the user on the head, based on image data included in the control content.
Further, the control unit 110 may constitute a virtual reality attraction that interacts with the user by receiving feedback data, which is input, for example, when the user who is on the machine component 130 operates a steering wheel provided in the machine component 130 or presses a pedal, and adjusting the movement of the machine component 130 and the image to be displayed on the image component 150 in response to the user feedback.
However, in the conventional virtual reality attraction, generally, the machine driving data for the operation of a machine and the image data for the display of an image, which are included in the control content, are separately programmed. Then, the image data for provision of virtual reality has been generally generated based on computer graphics (CG), even though the image data partially includes a real image. Therefore, since the control content of the conventional virtual reality attraction requires the planning of a predetermined virtual reality scenario as well as specialized labor for CG creation, there is a limitation that the control content is provided by a time-consuming and costly process. Accordingly, the conventional virtual reality attraction may not have sufficient content required to allow the user to experience various virtual realities, and may not easily provide the control content. Moreover, there is a limitation that the content may not be shared in various manners.